Sparkling wine and sparkle balls: Lady bosses get federal funds

There was a lot of business power packed into the white and pink front room at Hillberg and Berk’s head offices on Thursday morning, as grants to women entrepreneurs were announced from the federal government.

“We’re really, really excited,” said Crystal Milburn, the head of Prairie Bee Meadery near Moose Jaw, after the announcement.

Her company was one of 11 in Saskatchewan awarded grants from the federal Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES).

Milburn said she heard about the grant through a connection and ended up applying very last-minute.

“We thought, we have a project that would work for this that — given the limited resources you have in a small business and figuring out where to put your funds — we wouldn’t have been able to do for a couple of years,” she explained.

Milburn’s company, through Grandpa’s Garden Ltd., will be getting $100,000 and will put it toward new equipment to expand its product line to sparkling wines.

Most other companies will be using the  money to expand their facilities to increase production, with many also looking to grow their reach into new markets, like the U.S.

The money is coming from the WES, which has been pledged $2 billion to try to meet the federal government’s goal to double the number of women-owned businesses in Canada by 2025.

Out of the $4.6 million announced for Saskatchewan on Thursday, $3.5 million —  through the WES Ecosystem Fund — will go to organizations to make the business climate easier and more welcoming for women. The Saskatoon Open Door Society Inc. is one of them, for example, and plans to create a business incubator for recent immigrant women entrepreneurs. The remaining roughly $1.1 million will go to local business owners.

Milburn thinks it’s exciting the federal government is focusing on women in this way.

“We heard a lot of numbers today … that we have to grow as women, as leaders, in the economy,” she said. “I think it’s an exciting opportunity for everybody, and I think it’s a wonderful place for the government to be focusing on — not just for women but for Canada as a whole.”

In her lifetime, Milburn said she has started to see some change. More leadership positions are being filled by women, for instance.

“We’d all like to see it go faster but it has to be organic change, we recognize that,” she said, emphasizing more work still needs to be done — and the faster, the better.

Regina-based Hillberg & Berk is one of the grant recipients as well. The company’s CEO, Rachel Mielke, said it’s incredibly important to focus on women in business.

“There are specific challenges women in business face, particularly when they get to the phase of trying to scale up, so this support really helps overcome some of the challenges,” Mielke explained. “I think we’re moving in the right direction, and this really helps support some of that growth and some of those challenges.”

Hillberg and Berk will be using its new money to expand its products and marketing into the U.S. Mielke said, if it weren’t for this grant, the company would probably have focused more on its Canadian market.

Ralph Goodale was representing the Canadian government in the announcement. He said the money will help women advance more rapidly in the business community, filling in the gaps between women and men in top positions.

“When we bring (women) up, that’s a matter of fairness and inclusion and gender equality — but it’s also good, solid, sensible economics because that will add to economic success in Saskatchewan; (it means) jobs and growth for everyone,” said Goodale.

According to a federal government news release, only 16 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises in Canada are majority women-owned.